Southwest Virginia Artisan Conference
Information
About the Conference
Immerse yourself in a unique gathering that pays homage to the craftsmanship deeply rooted in the Appalachian region during this one-day event, November 6, 2026, at the Heartwood Artisan Galleries & Visitor Center in Abingdon, Va.
The Southwest Virginia Artisan Conference will offer attendees a rich and collaborative experience featuring insightful discussions, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities.
Schedule
Friday, November 6
8:00am
Complimentary Breakfast
9:00am
Opening Ceremony
9:45am
Breakout Session A:
Alyssa Phillips Downey – From Clicks to Customers
or
Breakout Session B:
Jennifer Reis – Teaching Your Craft
10:50am
Breakout Session C:
Molly Land – Build a Brand Your Customers Remember
or
Breakout Session D:
Ellen Reynolds – Wholesaling Your Work
11:50am
Networking Break
Noon
Group Session:
“Public Art in SWVA” with muralist Jon Murrill
1:00
Closing Remarks
1:30
Lunch (add-on)
3:00pm
Post-Conference Workshop:
“Taxes for Creatives” with Hannah Cole
From Clicks to Customers: How to Build a Website that Converts
2 hr – Breakout Session
Instructor:
Alyssa Phillips Downey
9:45am
In this session, we’re digging below the surface of common web design advice and getting into what really matters for converting visitors into customers: SEO/AIO, accessibility, and a smooth user experience. You’ll learn actionable steps you can take right away to fix common website pitfalls, the “why” behind the recommendations, and small tweaks that will make a big difference to help you get more traffic and more sales on your website.
If time allows, we’ll also take a look at attendees’ websites and provide personalized feedback to make your site work better for your business.
Teaching Your Craft: Tips and Tricks from the Trenches!
2 hr – Breakout Session
Instructor:
Jennifer Reis
9:45am
Are you interested in expanding your creative community as well as revenue streams to include teaching your craft? Have you started to teach art workshops but have an interest in improving and expanding your offerings? Jennifer A. Reis will lead this one-hour interactive session on the nuts and bolts of developing and scaling up a teaching artist practice. We’ll cover workshop ideation, design, and implementation as well as soft skills and end user empathy to get you ready to launch your teaching artist journey or further enhance your class development and execution. A professional teaching artist in textiles and mixed media with 22 years of experience nationally, Ms. Reis is adjudicated into the Virginia Commission for the Arts’ Teaching Artist Roster, a competitive program to showcase excellence in teaching artist practice, and is also recipient of the meritorious Al Smith Artist Fellowship of her previous state of Kentucky.
How to Create a Brand that Makes Your Business More Consistent, Recognizable and Professional
If you’re ready to increase your sales by stepping into the wholesale market, are your prices ready, too? Can you sell your products at wholesale pricing—often significantly below retail—and still make a profit
In this session, we’ll take the mystery out of pricing. You’ll learn how to calculate your true costs, establish both retail and wholesale pricing, determine your profit margin, and create a pricing structure that allows your business to grow.
We’ll also tackle some of the questions that come with entering the wholesale market: How do you find wholesale customers? What do retailers expect from you? How does wholesale differ from consignment, and which option makes the most sense for your business?
Bring the actual costs of producing one of your products—materials, packaging, and other expenses—and we’ll work through a real-world pricing scenario so you can see whether your current pricing is ready for wholesale.
Come prepared to crunch some numbers and leave with a clearer understanding of what your work really needs to sell for—at both retail and wholesale.
Taxes for Freelancers, Self-employed People and Solopreneurs with Hannah Cole, ENROLLED AGENT and Founder of Sunlight Tax
What can I deduct? What do I do with my receipts? Do I really need to pay quarterly taxes? What is a Schedule C? How do I deduct my home office/studio?
Hannah Cole is a tax expert, artist, and small business owner who specializes in working with self-employed people, especially creative and mission-driven ones.
She will make taxes visual and understandable with a “tax pictionary” live drawing, and she’ll discuss the basic tax equation, self employment tax and the estimated quarterly tax system, audit concerns for the creative person, and other tax issues specifically relevant to freelancers, and solo businesses, followed by a robust Q &A. Hannah Cole is the founder of Sunlight Tax, and she specializes in friendly, informative tax education for creatives, healers, and people who feel like the black sheep of the business world. Her mission is to empower self-employed people to set up for long-term success and take control of the financial side of their careers through her program, Money Bootcamp. Her book, Taxes for Humans, is an empowering guide to doing (and simplifying) your taxes when you’re self-employed, and the accompanying workbook has the tax organizer and checklists you need to get it all done, every year. You can get the simple tax tips and the podcast each week on her Substack, Taxes for Humans.
Meet the Conference Instructors
Alyssa Phillips Downey
Alyssa Downey is the owner of Amp’d Designs®, a brand, web, and graphic design business based in Asheville, NC. She works with growing businesses who have outgrown “good enough” on design that reflects their quality and propels them to their biggest business goals.
Alyssa holds a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute and worked as a designer and art director in NYC before starting Amp’d Designs. With over a decade of professional experience, she believes that design done well is a powerful tool that can help build trust, credibility, and loyalty for your business. Alyssa is also the founder of Make Your Design Matter®, providing mentorship and resources for self-employed designers.
Jennifer Reis
Jennifer A. Reis is a textile and mixed media artist who creates intensively hand-worked, ornately beaded, and embellished paper doll icons on cloth using traditional and alternative materials. Her artistic practice has been honored with numerous awards, grants, and prizes, including Kentucky’s Al Smith Fellowship, national adjudicated and invitational exhibitions, and teaching opportunities at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, John C. Campbell Folk School, Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design, Cleveland Institute of Art, Society of Contemporary Craft, and the Southwest School of Art. Her teaching style focuses on collaborative creative making in a low competitive environment and former workshop participants describe her instructional approach as empathic, kind, supportive, and individualistic. She also has a production textile line of Indigo Shibori art to wear and homegoods and is currently represented by Troika Gallery in Floyd, VA. She is on the Teaching Artist Roster of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and resides in Martinsville, Virginia with her husband, an unruly pack of dogs, and an ever expanding micro-farm venture. Find her online at www.jenniferannreis.com or @jenniferareis on social.
Molly Land
Molly Land is the founder and creative force behind All My Friends Are Hoopers™, a women’s basketball lifestyle brand built from a doodle, a lot of trial and error, and a slightly obsessive love of good branding. As a one-woman team, she handles everything from product design and storytelling to marketing, photography, email and fulfillment. She’s passionate about helping small businesses build brands that feel intentional, consistent and bigger than the team behind them. She lives in Big Stone Gap with her partner, Jamie and the cutest dog in the world, Piper.
Ellen Reynolds
Ellen opened Beagle Ridge in 2001 and has been specializing in Lavender for over 20 years. She is a recognized speaker at lavender and herb events up and down the East Coast, last year speaking at the New Zealand Lavender Conference. Beagle Ridge is a thriving Herb and Lavender Farm and agritourism destination in Wytheville VA. She has welcomed visitors from all 50 states and 29 foreign countries. Her passion for teaching other growers has created a thriving workshop series known as Lavender Academy. The academy teaches novice and expert growers how to grow Lavender and grow their lavender business. Since beginning the Lavender Academy in 2019, students from 32 states have come to take these weekend long workshops. Diversifying her business with other offerings, her husband retired early to help with the business. Although only open to the public 6 months out of the year, 5 years ago she hired a full time year round employee to help in the business. Creating a line of bath and body products on the farm, Beagle Ridge now manufacturers their diverse product line to 27 farms, spas and galleries across the country.
Hannah Cole
Hannah Cole is a tax expert, artist, and small business owner who specializes in working with self-employed people, especially creative and mission-driven ones. She’s helped tens of thousands of self-employed people skill up with accessible tax and money education, through her Money Bootcamp program, tax workshops from Florida to Alaska, and on the Sunlight Tax podcast. Her book, Taxes for Humans: Simplify Your Taxes and Change the World When You’re Self-Employed, is the most funny and empowering tax guide you’ll ever read. You can get the simple tax tips and the podcast each week on her Substack, Taxes for Humans. Hannah is the founder of Sunlight Tax.
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